My Success vs. Failure Ratio

So I encounter this almost everyday; how do you do so much?

No, I am not superwoman and I have no intention of becoming one either.

Skip away to the next article if you’re not the one who is obsessively compelled each day to push forwards, strive for something better and dedicate everyday to a greater feeling than the one that’s just past.

I am an adrenaline junkie. There I said it.

I need to constantly feel like I’m doing something and visible see a progress and if you relate to this, you’ll know that being an adrenaline junkie also risks us to become greatly devastated when things don’t work out the way we had planned it to. This is where I figured out a way to trick my mind.

The secret sauce?

Practice meaningful forgetting. Yes, you read that right — forget with purpose. As much as I get excited about something and want to see it through, it could be a funding grant, applying to something or simply hoping for a successful collaboration; I immediately forget everything about it as soon as I have hit the send button and it no longer needs my attention.

If it’s successful I can always return and refresh my memory and get excited again but if it’s not, that’s a whole day or several days lost being annoyed over something I never had so why bother?

Of course it makes perfect sense when you think about it — why would you stress over something you never had but it does take a while to practice it in your everyday. I have gotten so used to it that sometimes my mind draws a blank when someone asks me what I have been doing today simply because I was probably working on an important project proposal and it’s been packaged away to whoever needs to approve it now.

So what IS the ratio really?

I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to, because I don’t keep a count of failed/draft/tentative etc. projects I have no idea. What I do know is that I am always in the right mindset to move forwards because I am never deterred by something that doesn’t take off.

Failure is sometimes celebrated and other times shunned, as and when is convenient to our personalised situations but to me, it simply doesn’t exist because you keep moving forwards regardless. The active forgetting allows me to overtake my failure rate, whatever that may be because I can continue to work on what might be the biggest idea of my life without taking time to mourn over an idea that never took off.

If you are obsessed with a ratio, find one that motivates you instead of one that holds you back — mine is the number of interesting things I come up everyday.

It’s amazing how much clutter we store in our minds and what this simple trick will allow you to do. There you go, I’ve shared my secret now it’s only fair you tell me one of yours :)

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